Yes, the cards were strictly followed, there was no deviating from the cards. A few years ago I spoke to a player who had trained for the combine and from the time he left Dobson's "program" to the combined he gained 10%-20% on all lifts. He didn't go into details, but from the conversation I took away he wasn't happy with the strength program and felt he could have done more at Nebraska.
You do want some sort of structure in the gym with a team of 120+ members, but that structure has to be able to adjust on the fly for each individual person and there has to be deviation + or - on each given day. Weightlifting and strength gain doesn't come from a chart, you don't get maximum effort out of a predefined weight. A chart can be a guide.
I think you are missing my point. The cards do nothing but convey weight and reps. If those cards weren't written as part of a plan to increase a player's strength, speed, agility, quickness, etc.. then by all means the previous staff failed miserably. But if they were used as part of a plan to increase in all of those performance words I mentioned, then the only real thing to question would be why players weren't progressing enough.
If the cards were used to make sure players weren't trying to max every few days, and thus for safety reasons, I don't have a problem with it. I'm sure the new staff is using something similar to cards, because they want to see consistent trackable progress. Where there is probably a difference is that the new staff allows them to add additional weight, based on how well their lifting session is going. And I'm betting that would still be adding weight, within reason.
If you are suggesting the cards never changed for each player, then yes, that is the previous staff failing miserably. But I can not imagine that being the case. Not in 2014 on any college campus. Actually, not on any high school campus either.